Tim Lipsky was looking for a win in yesterday’s match at Sacred Heart University. He settled for a closely-contested match.
Unfortunately, close wasn’t enough to earn the Boston University men’s tennis team a victory, as the Terriers (4-11) dropped a 4-3 decision for their seventh straight loss since Feb. 16.
After BU was swept in three straight matches last week in South Carolina, the team hoped to rebound against the Pioneers (7-9). Although winning three singles matches seemed to be an improvement, BU’s coach wasn’t satisfied.
“It’s a team we should have beat, and we didn’t,” Lipsky said. “It was a bad loss. We were missing a few of our players, but it’s not an excuse. We still should have won,”
BU won three of six singles matches, but dropped the doubles point in falling to Sacred Heart.
Junior Charles Weinstein earned the first point of the day with two 6-4 wins, while junior Tim Sichler and senior Daniel Frid took their matches, 7-6, 7-5, and 7-6, 6-4, respectively.
Junior Miron Nissim and senior Hans Sapra each dropped their singles matches. Nissim lost 6-3, 6-4, while Sapra was defeated, 6-2, 6-2. Sophomore Amir Mehmeti also failed to pick up a point, falling, 7-6, 7-5.
Despite three singles victories, BU couldn’t carry the momentum into the doubles round. And yet, Lipsky wasn’t pleased with the Terriers’ performance in individual matches.
“I think it’s inappropriate to single out individual losses when it’s a team we should beat and we don’t do that as a team. It’s counterproductive to try to find a silver lining,” Lipsky said. “We should feel bad about this. We should internalize that and we should get fired up to work harder and come together better as a team.”
At this point in the season, Lipsky is asking for better effort out of his coaching staff and players.
“I need to do a better job at making sure the team is better prepared,” Lipsky said. “I’m not blaming it on the team because it’s just as much my responsibility. We lost because we were unprepared. We were poorly prepared and we lost a match we should have won. End of story.”
The Terriers travel to the University of Connecticut next Thursday and Lipsky said he hopes BU can learn from its recent losses and make the most of its practices over the next week and a half.
Lipsky said next week’s match against the Huskies (3-5) should result in a win. The Terriers need to bring their best effort to Storrs next week, as Lipsky surely doesn’t want to see a repeat of yesterday’s match.
“It’s not just about losing,” he said. “It’s about losing when you shouldn’t. It’s about the overall quality of the effort.”